CROSS
524
CROSS
the feast of the Finding was commemorated on Cal-
vary, that event having naturally become the occasion
of a special feast under the name of " The Invention
of the Holy Cross". The feast dates from very early
times at Jerusalem, and it was gradually introduced
into other Churches. Papebroch (Acta SS., 3 May) tells
us that it did not become general until about the year
720. In the Latin Church it is kept on the ,3rd of May ;
the Greek Church keeps it on the 14th of September,
the same day as the Exaltation, another feast of very
remote origin, supposed to have been instituted at
Jerusalem to commemorate the dedication of the basil-
ica of the Holy Sepulchre (335) and thence introduced
at Rome.
Constantine's vision of the Cross, and perhajis an- other apparition which took place in Jerusalem in 34G, would seem to have been commemorated in thts same feast. But its chief glory is its connexion with the res- toration of the True Cross to the Church of Jerusalem, after it had been carried away by the Persian king, Chosroes (Ivhusrau) II, the conqueror of Phocas, when he captured and sacked the Holy City. This Chosroes was afterwards vanquished by the Emperor Heraclius II and in 628 was assassinated by his owti son Siroes (Shirva), who restored the Cross to Heraclius. It was then carried in triumph to Constantinople and thence, in the spring of the year 629, to Jerusalem. Herac- lius, who wished to carry the Holy Cross upon his ow^l shoulders on this occasion, found it extremely hea\'y, but when, upon the advice of the Patriarch Zacharias, he laid aside his crown and imperial robes of state, the sacred burden became light, and he was able to carry it to the church. In the following year Heraclius was conquered by the Mahommedans, and in 647 Jerusa- lem was taken by them.
In reference to this feast the Paris Breviary associ- ates with the memory of Heraclius that of St. Louis of France, who, on 14 September, 1241, barefoot and divested of his royal robes, carried the fragment of the Holy Cross sent to him by the Templars, who had re- ceived it as a pledge from Baldwin. This fragment escaped destruction during the Revolution and is still preserved at Paris. There, also, is preserved the in- combustible croes left to the abbey of Saint-Germain- des-Pr^s by the Princess Anna Gonzaga, together with two portions of the Nails. Very soon after the discov- ery of the True Cross its wood was cut up into small relics and quickly scattered throughout the Christian World. We know this from the writings of St. Am- brose, of St. Paulinus of Nola, of Sulpicius Severus, of Rufinus, and, among the Greeks, of Socrates, Sozo- men, and Theodoret (cf. Duchesne, "Lib. Pont.", I, p. cvii; Marucchi, "Basiliques de Rome", 1902, 348 sq. ; Pennacchi, " De Inventa lerosolymis Constantino magno Imp. Cnice D. N. I. C", Rome, 1892; Baronius, "Annales Eccl.", ad an. 336, Lucca, 1739, IV, 178). Many portions of it are preserved in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme at Rome, and in Notre-Dame at Paris (cf. Rohault de Fleury, "Memoire", 45-163; Gosselin, "Notice historique sur la Sainte Couronne et les au- tres Instruments de la Passion de Notre-Dame de Paris", Paris, 1828; Sauvage, " Documents sur les reli- ques de la Vraie Croix", Rouen, 1893). St. Paulinus in one of his letters refers to the redintegration of the Cross, i. e. that it never grew smaller in size, no matter how many pieces were detached from it. And the same St. Paulinus received from Jerusalem a relic of tlic Cro.ss enclosed in a golden tube, but so small that it was almost an atom, "in segmento pene atomo has- tula> brevis munimentum pnesentLs et pignus iBtemiE salutis" (Epist. xx.xi ad Severiun).
The historical detail we have been considering suffi- ciently acco\mts for the appearance of the cross on monuments dating from the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century. In an arcosolium in the Catacomb of St. Callistus a cro.ss compos(Ml of flowers and foliage with two doves at its base is still
partially disguised, but begins to be more easily recog-
nizable (cf . De Rossi, Rom. Soft., Ill, PI. XII). Es-
pecially in Africa, where Christianity had made more
rapitl progress, the cross began to appear openly dur-
ing the course of the fourth century. The most an-
cient text we have relating to a carved cross dates from
later than a.d. 362. The cross was used on the coin-
age of Christian princes and peoples with the super-
scription, Salus Mutidi. The "adoration" of the
Cross, which up to this time had been restricted to pri-
vate cult, now began to assume a public and solemn
character. At the end of the fourth century Christian
poets were already writing, "Flccte genu lignumque
Crucis venerabile adora". The second Council of
Nicaea, among other precepts that deal with images,
lays down that the Cross should receive an adoration
of honoiir, " honorariam adorationem ". (See Section
II of this article.) To the pagan.s who taunted them
with being as much idolaters as they accused the pa-
gans of being towards their gods, they replied that
they took their stand on the nature of the cult they
gave: that it was not latria, but a relative worship, and
that the material symbol only served to raise their
minds to the Divine Type, Jesus Christ Crucified (cf.
Tert., "Apol.", xv-i; Minucius Felix, "Octav.", ix-
xii). Wherefore St. Ambrose, speaking on the vener-
ation of the Cross, thought it opportime to explain the
idea: "Let us adore Christ, our King, who hung upon
the wood, and not the wood" {Regem Chr'stum qui
pependit in ligno . . . non lignum. — "In obit. Theo-
dosii", xlvi). The Western Church observes the
solemn public veneration (called the "Adoration") on
Good Friday. In the Gregorian Sacramentary we
read: " Venit Pontifexet adoratamdeosculatur". In
the Ea.stern Church the special veneration of the Cross
is performed on the Third Sunday in Lent {KvpiaKT]
T^s aTavpoTpoa-Kvi'Ti<reus, " Sunday of the Cross-venera-
tion") and during the week that follows it. The grad-
ual spread of the devotion to the Cross incidentally
occasioned abuses in the piety of the faithful. In-
deed, we learn from the edicts of Valentinian and Theo-
dosius that the cross was at times set up in very un-
seemly places. The evil-minded, the ignorant, and all
tho.se who practised spells, charms, and other such
superstitions perverted the widespread devotion to
their own corrupt uses. To deceive the faithful and
turn their piety into lucre, these people associated the
sign of the cross with their superstitious and magical
symbols, winning thereby the confidence and trust of
their dupes. To all this corruption of the religious
idea the teachers of the Church opposed themselves,
exhorting the faithful to true piety, and to beware of
superstitious talismans (cf. St. John Chrysostom,
Hom. vii in Epist. ad Coloss., vii, and elsewhere;
De Rossi, "Bull, d'archeol. crist.", 1869, 62-64).
The distribution of portions of the wood of the Cross led to the making of a remarkable number of crosses from the fourth century onwards, many of which have come down to us. Known vmder the names of encol- pia and pectoral crosses they often served to enclose fragments of the True Cross ; they were merely crosses worn on the breast out of devotion — " To wear upon the breast a cross, hung from the neck, -n-ith the Sacred Wood, or with relics of saints, which is what they call an enmlptum" (Anastasius Bibliothecarius on Act. V of VIII Dec. Counc). On the origin and use of pec- toral crosses see Giovanni Scandella, "Considcrazioni sopra un encolpio enco rinvenuto in Corfu" (Trieste, 1854). St. John Chrysostom, in his polemic against Jews and Gentiles, wherein he panegyrizes the tri- wnph of the Cross, testifies that whosoever, man or woman, possessed a relic of it had it enclosed in gold and wore it aroimtl the neck (St. John Chrj-sostom, ed. Montfaucon, I, 571). St. Macrina (d. 379), sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen, wore an iron cross on her breast; we do not really know its shape; perhaps it was the monogrammatic one taken by her brother from
